What do we do?

We meet for 55 minutes at a time and talk. I do my best to begin and end sessions on time. How often will we meet? One session per week works well for many of my clients most of the time. I generally do not assign homework, but I do support full emotional engagement in our meetings. In a natural way, thoughts and feelings from our sessions will continue to be processed between meetings.

Regarding frequency, I do sometimes meet with people two or more times a week. Sometimes this is helpful and practical at the beginning of therapy. we might temporarily increase frequency of meeting during regular therapy, if a time of crisis or great life complexity comes up. In my experience, meeting less than weekly tends to be significantly less effective.

Meeting more than once weekly on a regular basis can very significantly intensify the work. Deeper process and change is more possible. For some people, this significant investment is worthwhile to accomplish the kind of in-depth change they require. Meeting three or more times a week is sometimes referred to as “psychoanalysis” (see separate page). It is an option that we would discuss and consider, probably after getting some traction in regular therapy and coming to feel that more would be valuable. I have special training for working in this way.

How long will the therapy continue? The best answer may be “it depends.” It is certainly difficult to know at the beginning. However, I can offer some general observations. Assuming we are able to meet weekly, within two or three months typically a sense develops that we are doing something valuable, that stuckness is beginning to unfreeze, that we have a good working relationship, and there is increased hope fueling a desire to continue with the work. In a timeframe leading up to roughly a year, there should typically be a sense that progress has been made. I think it is always useful to discuss this topic along the way. We may come to a point of feeling a lot of progress has been made and a sense of completion. Some clients choose to stop in this one year plus range, but others will press ahead with me. It is not uncommon to continue in therapy for multiple years.